ANJ Details 2025 Sports Betting Growth in France with Focus on Niche Products and Excessive Gambler Concentration
ANJ data shows French online sports betting stakes rose 12% to €11.52bn in 2025 with GGR up 10.4% to €1.766bn. Excessive gamblers placed over 80% of stakes on niche international leagues and 80-89% of sub-match bets. The report flags implications for targeted player protection measures.
SCCG Take — Operators must review product approvals and monitoring for niche offerings to address the documented concentration of high-risk activity without stifling overall market growth.
The French gambling regulator l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has published data showing online sports betting stakes rose 12 per cent to €11.52bn in 2025, with GGR up 10.4 per cent to €1.77bn. Active accounts increased 7.9 per cent to 5.27 million and unique players reached 3.65 million. Average annual spend per bettor stood at €3,159, a 25 per cent increase since 2020, while operators distributed €180m in incentives, mainly retention bonuses.
Football Remains Core Driver with Rising Live Betting Share
Football generated 54.9 per cent of stakes at €6.32bn, accounting for nearly half the market growth and two-thirds of total GGR. Adjusted for the prior year’s UEFA European Championship, underlying football growth ranged between 10 per cent and 19 per cent. The UEFA Champions League schedule expanded from 137 to 189 matches, a 38 per cent increase, driving a 48.6 per cent rise in stakes on those fixtures. The revamped Club World Cup produced average stakes of €3.9m per match. Tennis represented 23 per cent of stakes at €2.65bn with 16 per cent growth. Live betting accounted for 26 per cent of Champions League wagers, 30-35 per cent on domestic leagues, and 50-58 per cent on unlisted leagues.
Concentration of Excessive Bettors in Niche Offerings Raises Protection Concerns
The ANJ found that excessive and manifestly excessive players placed more than 80 per cent of their stakes on niche leagues in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia. These same categories generated 80-89 per cent of bets on sub-match markets including half-time, quarter-time and tennis set results. The regulator noted this pattern may reflect limited recreational interest rather than greater addictive potential in those products, and indicated the data could support tighter player-safety measures when approving competitions. Separate 2024 estimates placed problematic gambling behaviour at 1.17 million people in France, including 360,000 excessive gamblers. The market-wide RTP averaged 84.67 per cent against the 85 per cent annual cap. According to Focus Gaming News, these patterns require ongoing attention to balance expansion against concentrated risks.
The ANJ findings leave operators and regulators to determine how approval processes for niche competitions and live markets should incorporate the observed betting behaviour of higher-risk players.
Reporting: Focus Gaming News
Generated by SCCG’s automated editorial system from published source reporting. SCCG Management holds editorial responsibility.
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